A Child Reading Through a window to which the frost still clings,he looked upon a stormy winter scene,and soon appeared a little girl and spring. So still, so quiet, over a book she leaned,and though the sky was dark, the fields gray-white,the peach of her unblemished face, the green buds and pink roses on her […]

Dainty My finicky ways have left indelible markson most of those who have befriended me.My bars of soap face early demise,my skin eroded with so much lathering.My sedulous care in observing what looksI daily wear to the public,my meticulous attire,my conspicuous assortmenthave won me the epithet dainty. But dainty connotes a wealth of associationsthat are […]

Inchworm Inchworms, having healthy outlooks,love fruits and vegetables. Loopsor wickets of tubular green vinyl,they measure not in inchesbut in centimeters, beingcaterpillars of geometer moths.So they grow up to fly at nightand sometimes self-expend in flames.Because the inchworm lacks legsin the middle of its bodyit grips frontally, draws up the rear.Many people also move that way,but […]

Crows A murder of crows hurtles skywards. Abandon in their jangled ragged movements. They resemble a pile of rags. Flung and snatched by an angry wind. Are uncoordinated. Form a jagged line as if no-one has given them a route. They struggle toward banked clouds that seem to dip lower. Make the day as grey […]

Night Sky from the Farmer’s Market Drive the back way home he told meI forgot, so we turned down a side street toget to a side street to get to the back wayhome, because he wanted me to see fuchsiaazaleas blooming in a neighbor’s yard thatwere so fabulously fuchsia-y In the trunk was a hanging […]

Bio Sarah Wallis is a poet and playwright based in Scotland. Recent work published via Lunate, Idle Ink, Tiny Seed, Crepe & Penn and Finished Creatures. A monologue, A Stage of One’s Own streamed by Slackline Cyberstories during lockdown, was first performed at Leeds Lit Fest 2019. A chapbook, Medusa Retold, is due from Fly […]

The Mistake Every afternoonin the shadow of the Acropolisnew sculpture somehow comes to life,groups of men and womenbusily clay their handsthen after a week they line results along the pedestrian zone. Each has a curious title: people walk from one to the nextlooking, assessing,they have no choice reallythese objects are unavoidablethey weigh them up then […]

Intimate Conversation after Richard Jones   We speak in low voices   leaning in to each other–   my breath touching you   softly   on your cheek,   your breath touching me.       Just Music   I usually prefer songs without lyrics–   just music,   extending her hand without a word, […]

Membership It’s weird to be a member of an invasive species,accumulating sky miles and slurping Starbucks.Weird to be within my skin, yet partof a horde, colony, swarm in searchof sugar, creating commerce as it goes.My activewear unspools its filaments,fills the mouths of salmon, remainsin their guts like undigested worms.I dream of generations pouring outof my […]

An Independent Melody her heels click upon the pavement      striking discordant notes   as she moves over      cobbles and flagstones   interrupting the song of      the morning rush hour   hammering out a tune      that is all her own   Bio Sammi Cox lives in the UK […]